Local anæsthesia / by Arthur Schlesinger ; translated by F.S. Arnold.

  • Schlesinger, Arthur.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Local anæsthesia / by Arthur Schlesinger ; translated by F.S. Arnold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/232 (page 16)
    their being drained of fluid [Braun). We have, then, in physiological salt solution, a combination which neither causes pain when injected, nor injures the tissues, and constitutes, therefore, an ideal vehicle for anesthetizing substances. The absence of either “ soakage ” or “ drainage ” anesthesia is of little importance in view of the pain-deadening power of the substances we employ as local anesthetics. We require of the anesthetic itself, no less than of the vehicle in which it is dissolved, that its injection shall be free from pain, and shall not cause injury to the tissues. Braun and Heinze have tested a large number of substances by Schleich’s method, and have found very few which meet our requirements fully in these respects. Those which do so, and are therefore suitable for use as local anaesthetics, exert their anaesthetic powers, when injected endermally, in very dilute solutions. The method of testing an anaesthetic by injecting it so as to form weals is, however, only valid if the object for which we wish to employ the sub- stance tested is the production of anaesthesia of the skin or mucous membrane. Other laws come into operation where diffusion through several tissues is in question, as, for instance, when a mucous membrane is rendered insensitive by external application of the anaesthetic.